TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, the 132nd day of 2021. There are 233 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the Berlin Blockade, which the Western powers had succeeded in circumventing with their Berlin Airlift.
In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, the besieged city of Charleston, South Carolina, surrendered to British forces.
In 1937, Britain’s King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey; his wife, Elizabeth, was crowned queen consort.
In 1943, during World War II, Axis forces in North Africa surrendered. The twoweek Trident Conference, headed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, opened in Washington.
In 1958, the United States and Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD).
In 1975, the White House announced the new Cambodian government had seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, in international waters. (U.S. Marines gained control of the ship three days after its seizure, not knowing the 39 civilian members of the crew had already been released by Cambodia.)
In 1982, in Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who attacked Pope John Paul II. (In 2008, the pope’s longtime private secretary revealed that the pontiff was slightly wounded in the assault.)
In 1997, Australian Susie Maroney became the first woman to swim from Cuba to Florida, covering the 118-mile distance in 24½ hours.
In 2008, a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China’s Sichuan province left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
In 2009, five Miami men were convicted in a plot to blow up FBI buildings and Chicago’s Sears Tower; one man was acquitted.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Composer Burt Bacharach is 93. Actor Millie Perkins is 85. R&B singer Jayotis Washington is 80. Actor Linda Dano is 78. Actor Lindsay Crouse and singer-musician Steve Winwood are 73. Actors Gabriel Byrne and Bruce Boxleitner, and singer Billy Squier are 71. Blues singermusician Guy Davis is 69. Country singer Kix Brooks is 66. Actor Kim Greist and rock musician Eric Singer (KISS) are 63. Actor Ving Rhames is 62. Actors Emilio Estevez and April Grace are 59. Actor Vanessa A. Williams is 58. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 55. Actor Kim Fields is 52. Actor Samantha Mathis is 51. Actor Jamie Luner is 50. Actors Christian Campbell and Rhea Seehorn are 49. Actor Mackenzie Astin is 48. Country musician Matt Mangano (The Zac Brown Band) is 45. Actor Rebecca Herbst is 44. Actors Malin Akerman and Jason Biggs are 43. Actor Rami Malek is 40. Actor Emily VanCamp is 35. Actor Malcolm David Kelley is 29. Actor Sullivan Sweeten is 26.